City to stump up £5m for sports village

EDINBURGH is planning to stump up £5 million in an attempt to bring the new National Performance Centre for Sport to the Scottish capital.

Heriot-Watt University and Edinburgh City Council are bidding against both Dundee and Stirling for the Scottish Government-funded £25m arena.

The advanced facility must include an outdoor “natural grass ‘Hampden’ sized pitch for football”, according to the guidelines.

It will also feature a full-sized indoor synthetic football pitch with seating for 1000 spectators, badminton courts with 500 seats, along with a beach volleyball court.

The Edinburgh bidders are willing to offer an extra £5 million to invest in the stadium, bringing the total to £30 million.

Leader of the council Andrew Burns said that a win would ensure that the east coast could match the kind of facilities Glasgow is investing in for the Commonwealth Games next year.

He said: “Glasgow has stolen the march for all the right reasons, in terms of investment in sporting infrastructure, and we’re keen to try and keep that balance coming back this way to the east coast”.